Reconstruction: a time of political and social upheaval in America

By Edward L. Ayers, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, adapted by Newsela staff on 12.05.16

Word Count 921

TOP: A Bureau agent stands between armed groups of whites and Freedmen in this 1868 picture from Harper's Weekly. Courtesy of Wikipedia. MIDDLE: This 1866 Pennsylvania election poster alleged that the Bureau kept black men in idleness at the expense of the hard-working white taxpayer. Courtesy of Wikipedia BOTTOM: An 1872 cartoon depiction of Carl Schurz as a carpetbagger. Photo: Courtesy of Wikipedia.

During the 12 years after the Civil War—the era of Reconstruction—there were massive changes in American culture, economy and politics. These were the years of the “Old West” and its cowboys, Indians, buffalo hunts, cattle drives, railroads and ranches.

It was also the beginning of the "Gilded Age" in the North, the age of big fortunes, enormous businesses, struggle over labor unions and the largest economic depression in United States history. The events in the West and the North interwove with those in the South, where the central struggles of Reconstruction unfolded.

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.1

Two eras of Reconstruction

The political Reconstruction of the South progressed in two distinct eras. The first was Presidential Reconstruction, from 1865 through 1867, when President Andrew Johnson shaped the pace and depth of the reintegration of the South into the United States. The U.S. government didn't have a postwar plan for the South, and President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination and Johnson’s takeover threw things into even greater uncertainty.

Johnson had been elected vice president under President Lincoln in 1864, but proved himself surprisingly sympathetic to the white Southerners and unsympathetic to the people who had been held in slavery. Under President Johnson, white Southerners held on to all they could of their old ways. They passed “Black Codes” that limited the possibilities of life for free black people, preventing them from renting land or owning firearms. Former Confederates violently attacked black people in New Orleans, in Memphis and in the countryside across the region. The Ku Klux Klan terrorized those who challenged white supremacy in any way.

Immediately after the war, former slaves and former slaveholders had to define new ways of living. White landowners wanted black workers, but African-Americans wanted to work on their own. A system evolved in which landowners and workers shared some of the profits from the crops they produced. This was called "sharecropping."

Southern whites rejected changes

As long-term changes evolved in the South, political conflict and change disturbed the nation. A second era of Reconstruction began in March 1867, when a new majority in Congress pressed for a more aggressive recasting of the South than President Johnson had overseen. A wing of the Republican Party, called “Radicals” by their critics, instituted a sweeping set of changes in the South. The Reconstruction Acts of 1867, for example, required each state to write a new constitution that gave voting rights to all men, regardless of race. White Southerners, however, undermined these efforts.

Any white man who joined with black voters and Republicans was considered a traitor to his race. If he was a white Northern Republican, he was labeled a "carpetbagger," someone who could carry everything he owned in a cheap bag made of carpet. The carpetbaggers were seen as rootless adventurers who came down from the North to serve in comfortable government jobs, exploiting the ignorance of black voters for their own greed. In reality, they tended to be well-educated men of property, often U.S.

veterans, who had come to the South months or years before any prospect of office holding existed.

Historians today generally see the era of Reconstruction as a period of remarkable effort defeated by white Southerners and undermined by a faltering white government in the North. The goals of legal and political equality would be delayed for another century.

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Internal conflicts within interested parties

Reconstruction sought to complete one of the great revolutions of modern history. But the effort to recast the postwar South was up against long odds from the outset.

Southerners had dominated the presidency and the Supreme Court throughout the first three generations of U.S. history. They had not hesitated to use that power to suppress abolition, to force Northerners to return runaway slaves and to lay legal claim to at least half of the nation’s territory. Changing all those power relations at one time was a massive undertaking.

Moreover, the three major groups in Reconstruction were divided internally. The white North wanted irreconcilable goals: vengeance and reconciliation, transformation and security, justice and the status quo. Many white Southerners called for peace and acceptance of the new order while others demanded relentless resistance to alien invaders. The black South saw conflicts between former slaves and free blacks, between people from town and people from the country, between women and men, between non-religious leaders and religious leaders. Reconstruction was shaped by struggles within as well as among these groups.

Blacks' fight for equality lasted into the 20th century

Black Southerners, despite their divisions, mobilized for a voice in government. “This is a democracy—a government of the people,” argued a convention of African-Americans in 1865. “It should aim to make every man, without regard to the color of his skin, the amount of his wealth, or the character of his religious faith, feel personally interested in its welfare.”

These ideals refused to fade over the next century. Black Southerners sustained their political power wherever they could, joining with white allies when practical over the next decades, even electing African American congressmen into the early 20th century.

Despite obstacles, black Southern men and women asserted their rights in businesses, churches and schools. In the civil rights struggles of the post–World War II era, they were finally able to begin to secure their full rights as Americans. Only then would the possibilities of Reconstruction begin to be realized.

Edward L. Ayers is president of the University of Richmond. He has authored or edited several books about the history of the American South and the legacy of the Civil War.

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.3

Quiz

1Read the following selection from the article.

It was also the beginning of the "Gilded Age" in the North, the age of big fortunes, enormous businesses, struggle over labor unions and the largest economic depression in United States history. The events in the West and the North interwove with those in the South, where the central struggles of Reconstruction unfolded.

Which of the following can be inferred from the selection above?

(A) There were many complex issues throughout the nation that impacted how it dealt with Reconstruction.

(B) Events taking place in the American West were largely unaffected by the difficulties of Reconstruction.

(C) Events like the economic depression and the beginning of labor unions were what led to Reconstruction.

(D) There were many events happening in the U.S. that the government saw as more important than Reconstruction.

2 Which of the following selections BEST supports the idea that President Andrew Johnson was sympathetic to Southern whites?

(A) The first was Presidential Reconstruction, from 1865 through 1867, when President Andrew Johnson shaped the pace and depth of the reintegration of the South into the United States.

(B) The U.S. government didn't have a postwar plan for the South, and President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination and Johnson’s takeover threw things into even greater uncertainty.

(C) Under President Johnson, white Southerners held on to all they could of their old ways. They passed “Black Codes” that limited the possibilities of life for free black people, preventing them from renting land or owning firearms.

(D) A second era of Reconstruction began in March 1867, when a new majority in Congress pressed for a more aggressive recasting of the South than President Johnson had overseen.

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.4

3 Which of the following BEST describes the approach of Republicans to Reconstruction?

(A) They were happy to leave their homes in the North for comfortable government jobs in the South.

(B) They felt that not enough progress had been made and enacted laws to make more change.

(C) They believed that a slow and gradual approach was the best way to create integration in the South.

(D) They sought to undermine efforts of those in Congress who tried to create more aggressive legislation.

4 How does the article develop the idea that Reconstruction was a precursor to the civil rights movement in the 1900s?

(A) by demonstrating its ultimate failure to achieve its goals

(B) by explaining that black Southerners organized to gain and keep rights

(C) by suggesting that it was embraced by many white people in the South

(D) by detailing the similarities and differences between the two movements

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.5

Answer Key

1Read the following selection from the article.

It was also the beginning of the "Gilded Age" in the North, the age of big fortunes, enormous businesses, struggle over labor unions and the largest economic depression in United States history. The events in the West and the North interwove with those in the South, where the central struggles of Reconstruction unfolded.

Which of the following can be inferred from the selection above?

(A) There were many complex issues throughout the nation that impacted how it dealt with Reconstruction.

(B) Events taking place in the American West were largely unaffected by the difficulties of Reconstruction.

(C) Events like the economic depression and the beginning of labor unions were what led to Reconstruction.

(D) There were many events happening in the U.S. that the government saw as more important than Reconstruction.

2 Which of the following selections BEST supports the idea that President Andrew Johnson was sympathetic to Southern whites?

(A) The first was Presidential Reconstruction, from 1865 through 1867, when President Andrew Johnson shaped the pace and depth of the reintegration of the South into the United States.

(B) The U.S. government didn't have a postwar plan for the South, and President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination and Johnson’s takeover threw things into even greater uncertainty.

(C) Under President Johnson, white Southerners held on to all they could of their old ways. They passed “Black Codes” that limited the possibilities of life for free black people, preventing them from renting land or owning firearms.

(D) A second era of Reconstruction began in March 1867, when a new majority in Congress pressed for a more aggressive recasting of the South than President Johnson had overseen.

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.6

3 Which of the following BEST describes the approach of Republicans to Reconstruction?

(A) They were happy to leave their homes in the North for comfortable government jobs in the South.

(B) They felt that not enough progress had been made and enacted laws to make more change.

(C) They believed that a slow and gradual approach was the best way to create integration in the South.

(D) They sought to undermine efforts of those in Congress who tried to create more aggressive legislation.

4 How does the article develop the idea that Reconstruction was a precursor to the civil rights movement in the 1900s?

(A) by demonstrating its ultimate failure to achieve its goals

(B) by explaining that black Southerners organized to gain and keep rights

(C) by suggesting that it was embraced by many white people in the South

(D) by detailing the similarities and differences between the two movements

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.7